Crytek Adds Brand New Tools and Features to CryENGINE 3

Frankfurt a. M. (Germany) - Today, Crytek is releasing version 3.1 of its CryENGINE3 SDK. This is the first major upgrade to the all-in-one game development solution and includes many novel features and innovative tools. CryENGINE 3.1 enhances the CryENGINE Sandbox toolset with a new Shader Editor showcased at GDC 2010, improved profiling tools to maximize performance and quality, upgrades to animation tools and the introduction of new features such as Procedural Deformation, Irradiance Volumes, and physics-driven animations. All these features can be created with the unique Crytek “What You See Is What You Play” real-time pipeline, simultaneously across all supported platforms.

CryENGINE 3.1’s Blend Shader eradicates tiling of identical materials throughout games, without the need for large texture sets. A new Visual Budget System lets developers maximize performance and quality in their games, in real-time. Upgrades to the incorporated CryENGINE 3 Asset Browser ensure increased development speed for all designers and artists using CryENGINE Sandbox. Work has also been done to give directors and animators more control over their creations. The cut-scene and cinematic tool, TrackView, has been given a major overhaul, while the introduction of AnimGraph 1.5 not only facilitates access to parameters and blending values, but also features new tools that smoothly integrate animations with audio, particles, game events, and effects.

Aside from the tool improvements, new features such as Light Propagation Volumes further enhance the graphics of CryENGINE 3, making stunning interior, exterior, and cinematic lighting effects possible in real-time. The CryENGINE 3 Physics System now gives an unprecedented level of interaction with the game world by adding support for secondary damage effects from procedural destruction: deformation of materials in real-time, physics-driven hit reactions for animated characters in games, and customized destruction for any material.

Further enhancements within CryENGINE 3.1 include optimizations in lighting and HDR, support for more artist-content creation tools, and improvements to CryENGINE LiveCreate, which allows real-time and simultaneous development of multiplatform games. Many of these are in response to the needs of the CryENGINE user community.